Hank Kalet Posts

We've been seeing a lot of this kind of reasoning on Facebook the last couple of days. The point of this trope, and others, is to call liberals out as hypocrites. "Carter did it," this argument goes, so what do have to say about that?My response is simple: so what?

Gov. Chris Christie vetoed legislation late last week that would have used an expansion of federal heating aid to prevent cuts in federal food assistance to about 159,000 New Jersey families. The bill — A2956/S1893 — was a response to changes in federal rules adopted earlier this year with the passage of the federal farm bill. The new rules altered eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the largest federal nutrition program.

There is a bill in the New Jersey legislature that would legalize marijuana use and subject it to taxation, but Governor Chris Christie has signaled that he will veto the bill if it passes. But looking at Colorado's track record and windfall tax receipts, one must ask the question, "why?"

McDonald's CEO Don Thompson recently made headlines by suggesting that the fast food behemoth would support a minimum wage hike to the rally cry of $10.10 per hour, but you see, that was Don the guy talking, not Don the CEO. An official release from a McDonald's spokesperson quickly walked back those comments and reiterated the tired cry that independent franchises would be destroyed and jobs lost.

Missouri's Attorney General has a novel approach to the looming death penalty drug shortage – have the state build its own lab to mix the stuff. Missouri calls Obamacare too much government intrusion, but now specifically says "market-driven...pressures" should be taken out of the equation. So long as it's to kill people.

The proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner would create a "telecommunications colossus the likes of which the country has not seen since 1984 when the government forced the breakup of the original AT&T telephone monopoly," according to the New York Times. While it would inevitably squeeze more money out of an already overcharged consumer, the merger could also limit the ability of internet start-ups to find footing or alternative voices to find a podium.

Legal Services of New Jersey issued its annual poverty report, which found that more people in the state had trouble making ends meet in 2011 than at any time since the late 1950s. Some scary stats included in the report: 2.7 million residents living in actual poverty, including 38.5 percent of all children (a number that skyrockets to 79 percent in Camden).

It's always surprising when politicians use ultimatums to pain themselves in a corner, but while most of the country's recent examples revolve around no new taxes, President Obama's painted corner is made up of red lines and the potential for yet another war in the Middle East. Pride is a sinful thing, but it may be unavoidable — no matter how altruistic the motives to protect the Syrian people from its own government may be.

I'm not someone who believes that there are topics that should be off-limits to comedians. However, Daryl Cagle's cartoon crosses a line in equating the relationship between the American press and President Obama with that of an abused spouse.

The immigration reform package as outlined -- absent what Rachel Maddow has called the "Jan Brewer clause" -- has the potential to make real change in the lives of the undocumented by regularizing their status and offering a pathway to legality, but those are not the only issues in play.

This is a brilliant bit of satire that gets at the core of the GOP's regressive politics.Send me an e-mail.Read poetry at The Subterranean.Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here....

Junk bonds, also called high-yield bonds, tend to offer higher yields when they pay off but carry significantly higher risk of default. The problem is not the bonds themselves, but the way they tend to be used -- to financed forced takeovers that strip value from the company taken over, to fund the collateralized-debt obligations at the center of the 2008 crash and, as they are being used now, to pay off investors without thought to what they will do to the long-term health of the company.

Gail Collins neatly sums up something I've been saying for a while: You are either pro-life with no exceptions or you are pro-choice. There can be no middle ground:The idea of banning abortion except for rape and incest cases makes anti-choice politicians sound more evenhanded, but it doesn’t actually make much sense. If you believe life begins at conception, then that’s a life, and you should try to convince women not to terminate any pregnancy, no matter what the cause. Our difference of opinion is over wh...